Mexican Officer Charged as Head of Drug Smugglers

A Mexican Federal Judicial Police supervisor, who was the alleged mastermind of a major marijuana smuggling ring, was arrested Thursday in Chula Vista by federal drug agents who lured him from Mexico with promises of a $500,000 payment.

Julius C. Beretta, special agent in charge of the local Drug Enforcement Administration office, identified the Mexican officer as Jorge Iniquez Martinez, 32.

Iniquez’s credentials identify him as an agent of the Mexican federal judicial police in Guadalajara, and his badge shows that he is a group supervisor, DEA officials said. However, investigators have been unable to confirm Iniquez’s status, DEA spokesman Ron d’Ullise said.

Iniquez, who was not armed, was arrested without incident at 1 p.m. in a restaurant parking lot on 8th Street in Chula Vista by undercover DEA and U.S. Customs agents. D’Ullise said that Iniquez had agreed to travel to the United States to negotiate the $500,000 payment for 863 pounds of marijuana that was delivered to undercover agents in February, allegedly by his accomplices.

U.S. officials said an investigation revealed that Iniquez’s ring smuggled about 6,000 pounds of the drug from Guadalajara to San Diego in 1990. Undercover agents had agreed to pay him $600 per pound for the 863 pounds of marijuana his group delivered to them in February, D’Ullise said. However, some of the marijuana smuggled by the group to San Diego in the past was very high grade and sold for more than $1,200 a pound, the spokesman said.

The federal investigation lasted three months, but agents are not sure how long the ring has been in operation, he added.

U.S. agents arrested three accomplices Wednesday at an Encinitas hotel, where they had gone to discuss details of the $500,000 payment, D’Ullise said. They were identified as George Julio Argueta, 30, a citizen of El Salvador who lives in Chula Vista; and Joel Fonseca Cortez, 31, and Eduardo Cervantes Coronel, 51, both Mexican citizens.

Argueta was in charge of laundering the group’s drug money, D’Ullise said, and is said to be employed as a truck driver.

Cervantes was responsible for shipping the marijuana from Guadalajara to Tijuana, and Fonseca helped smuggle the drug across the border to San Diego, officials said.

U.S. prosecutors charged the four men with conspiracy to import and possession with intent to distribute marijuana. Each man could receive 10 years to life in federal prison and a $2-million fine. They are being held at the downtown Metropolitan Correctional Center.

When he was arrested, Iniquez was discussing the shipment of more marijuana to San Diego, after the undercover agents paid him the money owed for last month’s shipment, D’Ullise said.